I am a huge soccer fan and being an Exercise Sports major, anything involving sports is an interest to me.
In this article, Nike reuses discarded plastic bottles from Japan and Taiwan landfills to create an eco-friendly kit for the national teams playing in South Africa for the World Cup this summer. 13 million plastic bottles were used to create the kits for the nine national teams.
This was something that interested me because the technology that was used in melting the plastic into fabric that was usable for high performance sportswear was something that couldn’t have been done in the last World Cup. Nike’s dedication to helping reduce the amount of trash in the landfill by reusing recyclable items to create kits for players at the highest level is amazing.
The direction that Nike is lean towards, producing high quality sportswear for the biggest stage soccer can be played on and still helping the Earth reduce its carbon footprint is something I have could not have even imagined. With global warming and toxic waste on the rise, I applaud Nike for making a statement that there is no need for us to create more fabric from wool and cotton when there are plastic bottles lying around in a land fill. I am extremely proud that a company right here in our backyard is making a difference in other countries.
My only concern when reading that Nike had done was how much toxic material did Nike actually produce when melting the plastic bottles. It has been proven that recycling does more harm than good, so did Nike take the correct steps when melting the bottles to prevent any harmful chemicals to leak back into the Earth? Nonetheless, the action Nike took is something no other giant sportswear company can claim they have done.
I thought that this was very interesting. A lot of apparel companies have decided to reuse items that can serve as a greater purpose. Like your article talked about reusing plastic bottles as materials used in the sports wear for the world cup. What will they come up with next? I think that every company should try to recycle and reuse products. That is a good point about the pollution from melting bottles. That is highly toxic to our environment. Hopefully, they found a way to make it to were it was less toxic.
ReplyDeleteNike has been a big contributer to recycling for as long as I can remember. Back in grade school I can still remember watching the Bill Nye Show featuring an episode on recycling. there was a segment which a spokesman came and showed how Nike used old rubber to make impact absorbent basketball courts and running tracks even back then. And as our technology and ability to reuse products continue I'm sure Nike will be right there are the forefront turning old sneakers and plastics into dreams and opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting article and I also agree with you in that Nike does take big steps in trying to show the public they are eco-friendly. As for the carbon emission produced when recycling is something I would be interested in finding out as well. Whatever the case is I think more companies should try to expand their production with more eco-friendly ideas like Nike.
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